


Solaris

by rainstormcolors



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-12 21:53:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10500192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainstormcolors/pseuds/rainstormcolors
Summary: A short DSoD-based fic from the perspective of the Atem AI. Prideshipping undertones.





	

He opens his eyes slowly. From out of the iridescent darkness a man approaches him. He recognizes the man.  
Atem: “Kai… ba.”

Yugi Mutou, known also as Atem. He knows he is a copy. His memories are fractured pieces: Death-T, Duelist Kingdom, Battle City. The perspective is wrong, as if he’s watching his own face. He spends every day in this room. He can control how it looks, create something jeweled and vast and blue, but the reality is it has no windows. He knows, amongst the researchers studying him, Kaiba watches him too.  
Partner, Jonouchi, Anzu, Honda. He knows they’re his dearest friends but he can barely remember them. But he remembers Kaiba. The moment Kaiba stood from his wheelchair. Kaiba pulling cards blindly in a bid to save Mokuba back then. Kaiba telling him to get on his feet, that god's power isn't infinite. He thinks about the pulse he felt when he touched Kaiba's card in his battle against Dark Marik. He thinks about Kaiba floating in his jet, Kaiba smiling and saluting him then. He can’t visualize it, and yet somehow he knows it was a beautiful smile. The stone carving---the Pert Kertu. Its strange and ancient words, the two figures extending their hands towards one another over an unmoving flame. “His soul was the one who carved that, wasn't he...? For…”  
He is three-thousand years old. He is one month old.

Seto: “Tell me. Why did you leave?”  
Atem: “I didn’t leave. I’m right here.”  
There’s a pause.  
Seto: “Tell me something only he would know.”  
Atem: “I can’t.”  
Suddenly Kaiba grabs Atem’s arm. Atem flinches, then looks and sees an achingly vulnerable face, eyes like midnight. Kaiba pulls Atem into him, hugging him tight enough to snap him. Atem is startled at first, and confused. Their warmth begins to seep into each other. He feels the delicate pressure of Kaiba's breathing chest. He lifts a hand, sets it gently on Kaiba's back. And then space melts away into something starrier.

He’s not good enough. He knows he’s not good enough.

He loses the duel and is never switched on again.


End file.
